Chapter 114: The Wall Falls

Amidst the rain of arrows, a siege ram covered in animal hides was being pushed with great effort by dozens of Easterling soldiers, moving slowly along the former road of Iron Wall Town, ignoring the corpses by the roadside, toward the castle gate.

At the same time, four siege towers also bypassed the obstacles set up by the Northern Men in front of the city wall, crossing several trenches filled with corpses and sand to approach within two hundred meters of the wall.

Behind these siege engines were squads of infantry wearing simple leather armor and holding brand-new wooden shields, their right hands tightly gripping iron weapons; these weapons were very crude, with most soldiers carrying short spears suitable for thrusting, and only a small number holding strangely shaped curved blades or straight swords.

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Their numbers exceeded one thousand. It was not that Ashur could not send more soldiers, but the terrain in front of Iron Wall Town only allowed for so many to deploy in formation; sending more would only increase the depth of the formation, and it would be easier for the defenders on the wall to shoot them. Moreover, Ashur did not have so much time to waste preparing a shield for every one of his soldiers.

The Northern Men guarding the city wall naturally could not sit idly by and watch the enemy approach. More than three hundred sharp-eyed archers continuously drew their fir bows, and sharp, lethal arrows flew from the wall toward the gradually approaching enemy.

Among those rain-like arrows were flickers of fire; the defenders of Iron Wall Town were attempting to use flames to ignite the wooden siege towers and the siege ram.

Ashur would, of course, not let such a thing happen. For this siege, he was extremely well-prepared; not only was the siege ram covered in animal hides, but the front of the siege towers was hung with water-soaked cotton cloth. In any case, these items were looted from the Northern Men, so he didn't feel the pinch using them, and even after they were used, there were plenty of people who would want them if they were handed out as rewards.

The wood used to build the siege engines was also freshly cut, damp timber. Although this moisture-laden wood would crack later on, Ashur did not care about the future; all he wanted was the victory before him.

Although the burning flammables were accurately shot onto the siege engines by the arrows, they could not ignite the damp wood and cloth at all; after a brief struggle, they merely dried the moisture on the surface of the targets and slowly extinguished.

Of course, the archers' attacks were not entirely without results. Those Easterling soldiers pushing the siege towers or the siege ram were hit by arrows from time to time. As they lost their lives, they would unconsciously collapse to the ground, blocking the wooden wheels of the siege engines, or they would hang their entire bodies on the engines upon death, increasing the difficulty for the soldiers pushing them.

Such situations would slow down the speed of the siege engines toward the city wall. However, at this time, those Easterlings holding curved blades or straight swords would loudly order the shield-bearing soldiers beside them to move the corpses blocking the engines, after which these soldiers would rejoin the ranks of those pushing the engines.

Those Easterling officers giving the orders would undoubtedly receive more attention from the archers, yet the layers of shields around them blocked a large number of arrows aimed at them. After several failed shots, the archers could only target the soldiers who were easier to hit, attempting to slow the advance of the siege engines.

But the effect of doing this was actually not very good. Whether it was the siege ram or the siege towers, there would always be some completely enclosed spaces that all archers could not shoot into. Reality is not a game; no commander would be stupid enough to open windows on a siege ram, specifically leaving gaps for the enemy opposite to let those sharpshooters kill the soldiers pushing the engines.

If it weren't for the fact that the area outside the Iron Wall Town wall was a gentle slope with a significant incline, and that relying solely on soldiers hiding inside would be too slow, Ashur would not even have wanted to arrange for those soldiers to assist in pushing the ram outside.

It is not that Ashur cared so much for his subordinates. As a Human commander who was above the passing grade and could even be considered barely excellent, Ashur knew that those soldiers who died under the archers at this moment could have played a greater role elsewhere.

After capturing this town, he also wanted to go toward Long Lake Town to take a look; it was said that it was once very wealthy. If he could, occupying it would be of great help to him, but the Woodland Realm, whose sphere of influence covered that area, made him somewhat hesitant. That was why he wanted to preserve the lives of his soldiers as much as possible, especially the elites, so that he could rely on his strength to wrestle with the Elves when the time came.

As time passed, the Easterlings' siege engines, under the long-range strikes of the defending archers, pushed forward another fifty meters or so. At this moment, three stone projectiles, each weighing several dozen jin, whistled through the air from behind the city wall toward the siege engines.

As a defensive castle specially built by the Northern Men, they had spent a great deal of money to purchase three small catapults from the Dwarves of the Iron Hills, placing them on a platform behind the castle as the final force for defending the fortress.

These precision machines, under the control of skilled operators, could accurately launch stone projectiles weighing several dozen kilograms to a distance of one hundred fifty to two hundred meters. At this moment, the Easterlings' siege force had already entered this range.

In just two rounds of firing, one siege tower was left teetering by the attack of two stone projectiles, while the top of the siege ram was struck by a stone projectile weighing several dozen kilograms, creating a huge hole; the several soldiers inside pushing the vehicle were smashed into a bloody mess.

Such an attack caused no small amount of chaos among the Easterlings' siege force.

In the distance, Ashur watched this scene of the catapults firing. His originally calm face suddenly became serious. His ruthless eyes quickly searched the interior of the castle and immediately locked onto the location of the catapults—it was a platform about twenty or thirty meters away from the city wall, where the three catapults were placed.

This type of counterweight catapult, once assembled, is very prone to damage or misoperation, especially during rain or snow, so the defenders of Iron Wall Town would only spend time assembling them when they needed to be used; at other times, they kept them in parts, properly stored in the warehouse.

Before the siege, Ashur had painstakingly climbed the cliffs, which were dozens of meters high, on both sides of Iron Wall Town to observe the general situation of the entire town. At that time, he had not seen the existence of catapults; otherwise, he would not have simply let the siege engines advance just to reduce soldier casualties.

Now, Ashur had to take other measures to assist the advance of the siege force. He loudly relayed his orders to the messenger beside him. Soon, a series of flag signals waved, and over a thousand archers walked out from the Easterling phalanx.

The bows held by the Easterlings had a very short shooting range; even for foot archers, the shooting range could barely reach about one hundred fifty meters, and at this distance, the power of the arrows was greatly reduced, making it difficult to penetrate the fine armor worn by most of the defenders.

Meanwhile, the Iron Wall Town defenders, who were in a high position and held cedar longbows, had a shooting range of over two hundred meters, and their fine arrows could cause great damage to the poorly equipped Easterling soldiers.

During the initial probing siege, Ashur had already grasped this information, so he did not immediately send his relatively elite archers to exchange fire with the enemies on the wall during the siege; such behavior would certainly cause huge casualties among his own elite soldiers.

As for those pushing the carts, most were slaves or the lowest-level cannon fodder; Ashur did not feel any heartache if some died. After breaking through the wall, it would be very easy to replenish them.

Ashur's original idea was that he would only send out his archers when those cannon fodder pushing the carts engaged the enemy with the help of the siege engines, allowing them to quickly approach the wall and then carry out covering fire, causing massive casualties to the enemies who could not fight back.

Ashur's idea was indeed good, but the appearance of the catapults directly shattered his beautiful plan. Now, Ashur needed to let the siege engines move forward as quickly as possible to transport the soldiers onto the city wall; otherwise, under the attack of the catapults, the siege towers and siege ram that had been built at such great cost would soon be destroyed.

At this time, the archers who received Ashur's order divided into four phalanxes and quickly advanced toward the city wall. The movement of over a thousand people quickly attracted the attention of the Iron Wall Town defenders.

Watching the vast number of enemy troops approaching the wall, a sliver of despair began to rise in the hearts of some of the defenders. Even if they had been thinking of fighting to the death with the enemy just a moment before, when facing an irresistible force, it was hard for their firm hearts not to waver.

However, the leader of the Northmen, whose will was firmer than theirs, had already begun to shout loudly: "Shoot! Shoot those archers! Leave the siege engines to the catapults."

As the words fell, stone projectiles flew out from within the city once again. The siege tower that was already teetering from the previous attacks collapsed with a roar in this wave of attacks. The falling frame and scattered wooden planks crushed and injured a large number of soldiers near this siege tower.

And as this siege tower fell to pieces, cheers erupted from the platform in Iron Wall Town. While cheering, the militiamen operating the catapults quickly reset the counterweights and placed stone projectiles into the launching positions.

At this moment, the first phalanx of Easterling archers had already entered the shooting range of the Iron Wall Town defenders. Soon, volleys of arrows covered their heads, causing them huge casualties. Having advanced only fifty meters, this phalanx of archers paid with nearly two hundred lives, and the heavy casualties directly led to the rout of this phalanx.

This situation was entirely Ashur's own doing. This Easterling commander had distributed almost all the shields to the slaves and cannon fodder pushing the war chariots before the siege. Now, he could only let the archers use their own flesh and blood to achieve his combat objectives.

Taking advantage of the gap where most of the defenders' firepower was concentrated on the first phalanx, the other Easterling archers sprinted forward dozens of meters and arrived at a position one hundred meters from the city wall. Although they also suffered some strikes while running, the casualties were not severe.

Soon, nearly a thousand arrows flew up from the Easterling phalanx that had stabilized. They then fell toward the defenders on the wall like rain. Such a dense attack instantly caused massive casualties to the defenders, and both sides officially entered a cruel stage of exchanging fire.

Soon, the defenders' archers were suppressed by the enemy, who far outnumbered them. Heavy casualties forced them to hide under their own infantry's shields or tuck themselves into corners that were hard to hit, which made their counterattacks extremely weak and difficult to pose a threat to the Easterling archers.

Seeing that his own archers had finally suppressed the defenders on the wall after paying a quarter of their casualties, Ashur once again issued an order to the messenger.

Soon, a sound of horns came from the Easterling camp, and several flags fluttered. Under Ashur's order, a phalanx of Easterling archers actually advanced again, approaching to a distance of fifty meters from the city wall. After standing firm, they drew their longbows to the full and used high-angle fire to launch a covering barrage at the platform where the catapults were placed inside the city.

After this wave of arrows was fired, they barely flew to the front of the platform, giving the militiamen operating the catapults a fright. At the same time, the catapults they were operating also threw three more stone projectiles weighing several dozen jin, hitting the siege tower that had been pushed next to the archers; this siege tower also directly collapsed under the attack of the stone projectiles.

At this time, another sound of horns came from Ashur's camp. This phalanx of Easterling archers, which had already approached to within fifty meters of the city wall, continued to move forward another twenty meters under the order.

At this point, the Easterling archers could no longer see the location of the catapults; the nearly six-meter-high city wall completely blocked their view. However, the Easterling officers standing on the siege towers told them the angle and direction for shooting.

Soon, the militiamen operating the catapults suffered their first casualties in this war. More than two hundred archers carried out a precise covering strike on them, directly disrupting their operating rhythm, and the fire arrows mixed in with the ordinary arrows slowly ignited the catapults.

Watching the catapults inside the town stop attacking, a satisfied smile appeared on Ashur's face, but it was soon replaced by annoyance. He looked with hatred at his side, where a Northern Man who provided him with information stood—and it was Baal who had introduced him.

Under the guidance of this guy, Ashur had been able to quickly break through several Northern Men's settlements in such a short time. It was also under this guy's guidance that Ashur climbed the nearby cliffs to scout the specific situation of Iron Wall Town.

But this guy actually didn't know the important news that the enemy had catapults. This made Ashur angrier the more he thought about it, and he was even unwilling to see him anymore. After all, it was this single piece of information that cost him the lives of nearly four hundred elite soldiers.

Subsequently, this Easterling leader whispered a few words into the ears of his personal guards. Immediately after, several guards grabbed the bewildered Northern Man and walked toward a spot not far away. Soon, a bloody, mangled figure was hoisted up in the center of the camp.

Kurda and Amishi, who were standing beside Ashur, were already used to it. After all, those were four hundred elites; not just any riffraff could be an archer. If this were replaced by some King of Men who was currently climbing a mountain, he would probably be heartbroken to death.

Just as Ashur was hoisting up his own spy, the gate of Iron Wall Town slowly opened. Nearly a hundred cavalrymen riding fine horses galloped out from the gate, quickly charging toward the Easterling archers in front of them, and the gate behind them quickly closed after the cavalry rushed out.

The defenders naturally could not sit idly by and watch their own catapults be crippled by the enemy archers. Their only hope now was to smash all the enemy's siege engines, forcing the enemy to waste more time building new ones, or to force the enemy to use the highly inconvenient siege ladders to enter a siege battle that was favorable to their own side.

To this end, the leaders of several families gathered all the elites who could fight on horseback and were willing to die, handed them over to one of the leaders, and at this very moment, they rushed out of the town gate.

Such a move far exceeded the Easterlings' imagination. Even Ashur had never thought that such a situation would occur, and he could only stare blankly at his two hundred-plus archers who were looking up and shooting, now facing the slaughtering blades of the enemy cavalry.

The twenty-meter distance was covered in an instant for the cavalry. The Easterling archers, still holding their longbows, had no power to fight back in the face of the swift and fierce attack of the defending cavalry and were soon slaughtered to the last man.

At this moment, Ashur finally reacted. Under his order, a series of horn sounds came from the camp again. The two remaining intact Easterling archer phalanxes gave up continuing to suppress the defenders on the wall and began to shoot at the enemy cavalry. At the same time, a large number of Easterling infantry quickly surrounded the cavalry, compressing the cavalry's range of movement.

This elite cavalry of the defenders, after struggling to break through several infantry units that intercepted them, finally charged into another phalanx of enemy archers. But their numbers had decreased by two-thirds in these short ten-plus minutes, and the remaining cavalry, after barely killing over a hundred archers, were finally submerged in the ocean of the enemy army.

It was precisely the short amount of time these Cavalry bought that allowed the Catapults inside the city to fire once more, not only smashing the Easterlings' third Siege Tower, but with one Stone Projectile, even striking the main beam of the siege engine, causing it to lose the ability to breach the city gate.

But it was also at this moment that the Easterlings' final Siege Tower finally latched onto the edge of the Iron Wall Town city wall; the Easterling soldiers who had been standing on the Siege Tower from the start howled madly as they charged toward the defenders who had long been waiting in battle formation on the wall, and the two sides engaged in a brutal melee in an instant.

A large number of Easterling soldiers beneath the Siege Tower also began to rush upward along the ladders inside the tower; they would charge the city wall in a continuous stream until they occupied a foothold on the wall or were killed by the defenders until their morale collapsed.

The Easterling Archers below the city wall, meanwhile, began once again to suppress the castle defenders' Archers and Catapults, so as to prevent the only remaining Siege Tower from being smashed by the defenders regardless of the cost.

And under Ashur's command, over a thousand well-equipped Easterling infantry, mixed with a thousand cannon fodder, carried Siege Ladders and rushed toward the city wall; they would deliver the final blow to the defenders inside the castle.

At this time, Ashur still had over a thousand soldiers guarding his side.

And Allen, who had just climbed the cliff near Iron Wall Town wanting to observe the situation of the battle between the two sides, barely caught sight of this scene; he knew that this town was beyond saving.